This invention relates to improved elevators for gripping and suspending a tubular member, such as a pile for locating an offshore well drilling platform.
In moving a series of piles into position for locating an offshore drilling platform, the piles are normally suspended individually by a crane mounted on a barge adjacent the drilling site, with an elevator device gripping the upper end of the pile and connected to a line from the crane. In order to enable a conventional elevator to effectively grip and lift the piles, it is usually necessary for the piles to first be moved in some manner to vertically extending positions on the barge. Also, most elevators have been of an external type, which must be received about the outside of the upper end of each pile, with the resultant further requirement that the vertical piles be spaced laterally apart to allow proper contacting of the elevator with their upper ends.